REASONS TO BUY
Grid for alignment
Non-slip when dry
Eco-friendly rubber
Durable
Easy to clean
REASONS TO AVOID
Thin
Expensive
A little heavy
Wet traction is not great
GuruGrid Eco-Friendly Premium Review
A yoga mat featuring a grid for alignment, perfect for a new or experienced yogi looking to improve their yoga
Credit: GuruGrid
RELATED: Best Yoga Mats of 2024
Our Verdict
The GuruGrid is an excellent option for the new or experienced yogi looking to improve their practice. The numbered grid helps gauge where you are in your practice as well as the progress you make over time. The smooth Polyurethane top layer is easy to wipe down after every yoga class, and the dry traction is excellent. Its performance suffers a little with excessive moisture, so we recommend keeping a towel close by for those high-intensity practices. It's rather thin but still on the heavier side, providing a decent amount of cushion and support without jeopardizing balancing postures, and it can be folded over easily. It is also quite durable, proving to be a solid option for most yogis. Our review of yoga mats shows how it stacks up versus competing products.
Our Analysis and Test Results
The GuruGrid sets itself apart from your average yoga mat with a numbered grid to help with your alignment. Whether you're a seasoned yogi or brand new to the practice, guidelines like this are helpful. Read on to see what else the GuruGrid has in store.
Performance Comparison
The Grid is a unique feature, great for finding your alignment.
Credit: Hayley Thomas
Comfort and Support
At three and a half millimeters, the GuruGrid is one of the thinner mats in our test suite, although it's not the thinnest. It is slightly squishy but mostly firm, offering okay comfort for your boney bits, and great support for all your balance needs.
Because it's thin and firm, there isn't a lot of give or squish to the GuruGrid. This feature is nice for handstands, crow, or any other position that requires a firm foundation to keep your wrists from pushing further into the mat than the rest of your palm or fingertips.
The Grid is especially great for inversion practice.
Credit: Hayley Thomas
On the flip side, three and a half millimeters doesn't provide much comfort for the knees, elbows, or other boney parts of the body. However, if you require a little more cushioning, the GuruGrid folds over easily, doubling the thickness and comfort. You can even fold it over twice if you want, but you may risk the mat creasing.
The mat lies flat on the floor and doesn't roll up during practice. The weight and material allow it to roll out with incredible ease, unlike some thicker, lighter mats that must be rolled the opposite way for them to lay flat.
A mat that lies flat helps moving through your practice easy.
Credit: Hayley Thomas
The comfort is slightly increased when the GuruGrid is placed on softer ground like grass, carpet, or sand. Unfortunately, softer ground decreases support and stability as the mat is thin and a little flimsy.
The thinness doesn't protect the mat from uneven, soft ground.
Credit: Hayley Thomas
Grip
The Polyurethane material helps provide a lot good amount of grip right off the bat, even with zero texture. The bottom of the mat is also very sticky and has some texture, ensuring that the GuruGrid won't slide around on the ground if one or two points of contact end up off the mat.
If you get lazy and start pushing forward without pressing downward, you might fight that you slip forward a little, but most yoga poses call for downward pressure, so if you're doing it right, this shouldn't be an issue.
The GuruGrid is surprisingly grippy when wet. With such a smooth, textureless, shiny surface, our testers were expecting a more slippery experience when moisture was introduced. However, we are happy to report that the GuruGrid performs very well in the presence of moisture, making is a great option for hot yoga and room-temperature yoga alike.
The GuruGrid performs pretty well in the presence of moisture.
Credit: Hayley Thomas
Materials
The GuruGrid is made of Recycled Natural Rubber and Polyurethane. It emits a somewhat rubbery smell when you first unroll it, but eh smell dissipates quickly.
The Natural Rubber-Polyurethane combination is super durable. After months of testing, the mat shows no signs of wear or deterioration. It remains fresh-looking, void of stains and blemishes, regardless of how many times we use it. The texturelessness of the mat's surface may play a big role in how fresh the GuruGrid remains, as it's super easy to remove dirt and oils from the surface. In fact, it is still one of the newest looking in our test suite.
This mat stays looking fresh through many practices.
Credit: Hayley Thomas
Ease of Use
The GuruGrid has a distinct rubber smell at first, but it fades quickly over a couple of uses, unlike other mats that use Polyurethane.
The slick Polyurethane top is easy to clean, so keeping your mat fresh looking by removing dirt and oils is effortless. Simply wipe it down with a mix of vinegar and water, let it hang dry when you get home, and it'll be ready within the hour.
A quick spray down and gently wipe keeps the GuruGrid nice an fresh.
Credit: Hayley Thomas
The GuruGrid offers a unique numbered grid system to assist you in your alignment. The numbers are thoughtfully placed and intuitive to use. The fours are four feet from one another, the threes are three feet apart, and so on. The grid allows you to track your progress as well as keep tabs on your preferred placement for various asanas. We like to use them as we are warming up, ensuring we are easing into our practice with no risk of overstretching.
The GuruGrid weighs roughly four and a half pounds, falling somewhere in the middle of the options in our test suite. It is 72 inches long and 24 inches wide, a somewhat average size, but the three-and-a-half-millimeter thickness allows it to roll up tightly while the grippy surface keeps it together without a strap.
The numbered grid is super helpful and it kind of reminds us of twister which is fun.
Credit: Hayley Thomas
Should You Buy The GuruGrid?
While the cost of this mat is a little more than average, we highly recommend the GuruGrid to anyone who values grip and needs a little help with their alignment. It performs well in both dry and wet conditions. On hard ground it provides optimal support for poses that require balance. The only reason we might suggest you continue your search is if you're looking for a yoga mat with a little more padding, as some of the options in our test suite offer twice the thickness.
What Other Yoga Mats Should You Consider?
If you're looking for something a little thicker than the GuruGrid with a similar dry and wet grip, the Yoloha Unity Cork is an amazing option. It's made of cork and rubber, and while it's a wee bit more expensive, it's well worth the money. If the thought of spending over $100 on a yoga mat is too much for you, the B Yoga B Mat Everyday is a great budget-friendly option, offering insane grip right out of the box. Some even feel it might be TOO grippy for certain faster-moving styles of yoga.
—Bo Outland
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